The way I see it, there are really
only four categories of audio wire; The Cheap, The
Reasonable, The Expensive and The Insane. [NOTE: if
you are Donald Trump or a celebrity hairstylist
there are NO categories and wire is simply ‘wire’].
Stereovox’s relatively minimalist stable of cables
fall evenly among the latter three categories with
our subjects at hand falling neatly into the
category I’ve labeled ‘reasonable.’ Chris Sommovigo
divides his products in half and labels the
‘reasonably’ priced half the Studio line and the Dom
Perignon half, the Reference line.

The Stereovox Vespa interconnects and
the Firebird speaker cables hail from the Studio
line — and their pricing, as such, is commensurate
with most of the products I tend to review. Prior to
its arrival, the Vespa interconnect already in a
manner of speaking, had a place in my heart, for its
immediate predecessor was the beloved (to me) Studio
HDSE; an interconnect which I would come to prefer
to a litany of other cables and which I went on
about in chat forums/recommended many times to
friends etc.

As compared with its predecessor, The
Vespa IC's retain the same tubular copper conductor
geometry long favored by Stereovox along with the
same RCA terminations, though the left and right
channel conductors (the wires themselves) are now no
longer separate. Rather, they are bundled together
under one sleeve of shielding material. Giving
Stereovox more of your money will net you
individually shielded wires which employ the
purportedly better performing, cool looking and
certainly more-expensive-to-manufacture Xhadow
Reference RCAs. These are called the Colibri
interconnects and it is reassuring to know (for us
Firebird users anyway!) that despite their
additional cost, they employ the self-same tubular
conductor geometry that the Firebirds do.

Even more reassuring is the knowledge
that, should you wish to give Mr. Sommovigo of
Stereovox MUCH more money, you will find that your
Reference line interconnects- the near- legendary
SEI-600's - again employ the self-same tubular
conductor geometry, though that conductor now
becomes solid-core silver and gets wrapped in more
advanced noise rejection/shielding materials.

Even a recovering English major like
myself can deduce from this that Mr. Sommovigo really prefers a tubular geometry for his
conductors. Why so and wherefore? Let's ask the
man....

Me: “Mr. Sommovigo- why do you prefer
tubular conductors for your interconnects?”Mr. Sommovigo:
“Skin Effect management. It essentially forces all
relevant frequencies into the same resistance
profile. This is done in many ways in the industry,
via Litz, via ribbon, etc. The tubular conductor is
the purest way of accomplishing this end, in my
opinion.”Me:
“Good enough. Can you say a bit then about the
differences between my beloved HDSE IC's and their
replacement, the Vespas under review here?”Mr. Sommovigo:
“The newer dielectrics are much lower density so
they store less and release faster. Now all of our
products use the low density dielectrics, yielding a
dielectric constant of 1.41 typically. The old HDSE
used high density teflon."

It doesn't take an
English major to infer that Mr. Sommovigo feels such
electrical benefits translate directly into sonic
ones.

Interview complete. Now you see why I
write for stereo magazines and was not asked to
replace Star Jones on The View?

But you get the idea. In any case, as
you and I are both undoubtedly aware, all kinds of
cable makers make all kinds of claims about all
kinds of properties affecting the sonics of their
product in one manner or other. Since there is no
good way to prove, even if you love the cable, that
such wonderfulness really is the byproduct of these
particular properties in your particular system, it
makes sense not to dwell at length upon them. Hence
the Larry King-like vapidity of my 'interview.'

Use and Abuse... of privileges

I've had Chris Sommovigo's Vespa
interconnects and Firebird speaker cables for far
longer than I should have. There- I said it. I've
used them maybe for almost two years when I believe
we agreed upon roughly a few months. This is because
I sorta forgot that I promised Chris a review...
then I ummm... had stuff to do and ...uh...my dog
ate the.. well, in any case, it was way too long and
for that I apologize. Don't worry though; I never
hand out good reviews just because I'm apologetic. In any case, prior to receiving the Vespas/Firebirds,
I should disclose that Chris's HDSE studio IC's were
my go-to interconnects for the longest time- several
years in fact. Their superb value for money even
prompted me to nominate them for a Stereo Times
holiday gift idea.

I bought them either prior to becoming
involved with reviewing or early into it, shortly
after reading some really positive review or other
and essentially never looked back. I loved them from
the get go. As I recall, it wasn't anything special
about them that particularly grabbed my interest
(though I did love the name 'Stereovox') - and THAT's
what was special about them. They just seemed to
overlay little if any character on the sound, even
as compared with much pricier fare.

What's more, I bought them at a time
when I was detoxing from a years-long Naim addiction
and as such, comparatively, most audiophile cables
sounded sluggish and warm to me at the time - very
un-Naim-like In retrospect, the particular paciness
of the Naim gear, at least in the case of the older
olive series gear, is a bit of an acquired taste for
many, and if you compare say, systems cabled with
normal-people wires like AudioQuest or MIT to their
combos, you will always feel your system is somewhat
sluggish by comparison. Or you could conclude that
their older gear makes everything sound a touch
'faster and punchier' than it should. That's what I
ultimately concluded. Hence my detox.

But - I digress. In any case, fresh
off of Naim's heady rhythmicity, I needed a wire
that compromised little in this department, but let
the essential colors and joy of the music come
through with my new 'round-earth' gear. The
Stereovox HDSE cables did just that.

As I recall, by way of comparison with
the original Audience Au24 I was using at the time,
the HDSE's seemed appropriately rougher and more
dynamic. They had more bass and in general sounded
less 'oiled' and more real. Indeed, for all their
delicacy and subtlety, I found the original version
of the much ballyhooed Audience cables to be a
little light in the loafers. The new and improved
version thereof may be better in this regard.

But we aren’t talking about the HDSE
here - at least we're not supposed to be. We're
supposed to be talking about the Vespa; a new and
supposedly improved version thereof. So let's...

Mine is Bigger than Yours

First, just a brief 'ergonomic' issue
or two. I should mention that, much like the JPS
Labs cables, the Stereovox studio line cables
require some deftness/delicacy in handling as they
can get 'kinky' relatively easily. Don't try to make
them go around sharp corners or step on them (too
often), and keep the dog away. I should also mention
that since the Vespa consists of two conductors
wrapped in a sheath whose loose ends hang out of the
insulation by a few inches or so, they do not lend
themselves well to very widely spaced RCA
connections on amplifiers. I had trouble only rarely
with this on amps such as the Luminance ST-150, as
its RCA inputs were on opposite sides of the back
plate and the Vespas only barely made the span. The
HDSE's by contrast, were single unsheathed
conductors and therefore had no such troubles.

Sonically, in comparison with my
current reference cables, the much less flexible,
thicker and four-times-the-price JPS SC 3's, the
Stereovox Vespa IC's lose out a bit on two factors-
bass heft and tonal color. With the Vespa in place,
there is slightly less heft and thrum in cello n'
bass segments and a bit less impact on kettle drums.
The growing rumblings of orchestral tuttis don't
quite wash over you to the degree they do with the JPS
Labs SC3's.
Tenor voices I'm very familiar with, such as
Pavarotti, Juan Diego Florez and Rockwell Blake seem
just a bit thinner and maybe a bit more focused.

You know - in writing these
descriptions, it occurs to me that since I once
again was passed over for an invitation to the
original recording sessions, and cannot therefore
speak with absolute assuredness as to how these
recording should sound, perhaps I will shift a bit
into total subjectivist mode (as if we weren't there
already). Let me tell you straight; I use both the
JPS Labs cables and the Stereovox cables on a
rotating basis. I love both of them though I find
the JPS to have in general a 'bigger', more weighty
sound which is a touch warmer in character and a bit
more tonally colorful.

The Stereovox on the other hand may
sound a bit 'faster' - more lithe and punchy/pacey.
I therefore find myself using the Stereovox in
preference to the JPS cables with say, punchy
British integrateds, such as the Exposure 2010S and
with equipment that could lend itself to sounding
overly syrupy at times. It certainly worked better
with my friend's Shindo gear - not that the Shindo
is overly 'tubey' - just seemed the Sterovox
highlighted its dynamism and agility a touch more.
The Stereovox seemed a more sympatico match for my
Red Wine Audio amp as well as the JPS cables were
too warm for my taste in this particular
application.

However, for whatever fortuitous
reason, I prefer the JPS cables with my resident AR
Classic 60 tube amp and LS-5 Mk. 3 preamp. They just
seem to bring out this pair's expressiveness to a
more visceral degree than the Stereovox's here -
which by no means sound 'bad' with this gear.

In terms of the Firebird speaker
cables, they share a sonic signature with the IC's -
fast and agile and a touch leaner than the JPS
Petite+ I use as my reference. The JPS cables worked
a treat with my Proacs, which could be a touch
insistent up top and the Stereovox's worked as well
or better with many other speakers, including the
Hyperion standmounts and Living Voices etc. It's a
rehash of the IC comparisons- a touch more agility
and dynamism vs. a touch more warmth, weight and
heft. I do LOVE the easily removable Xhadow silver
spades included with the Firebirds as with them, you
have shift-on-the-fly convenience when connecting
speakers or amps set up to accept solely spades or
solely banana connectors.

What are you trying to say??!!

I guess what I'm trying to say is, the
Stereovox Vespa ICs seem to offer a bit more nuance
and resolution than their predecessors- the amazing
HDSE- without ever sounding anything less than
musical or natural. They certainly remain, alongside
the DH Labs Air Matrix, my 'go to' interconnects for
daily listening with much of the gear it is my
pleasure to evaluate/hear. They are also seems less
delicate- less prone to kinkiness- owing to their
new jacketed build.

I will say that in certain
applications the Nordost Heimdall I heard recently
(thanks Cable Company!) surpassed the Stereovox
Vespa at its own game - managing to sound similarly
rhythmic, dynamic and resolved with even perhaps a
shade more heft and rumble and a bit less fine
grain.

But it was damnably close and those
Heimdalls cost quite a bit more. And so it always
goes...

I will say, as much as I enjoy the
budget interconnects from Audio Art I reviewed some
time ago, I have come to consider the Stereovox's a
step up musically. Audio Art's speaker cables remain
a superb cable all around and were to my ears,
better than their previous interconnects (new models
are since afoot).

In terms of the the Firebird speaker
cables- I'm not trying to save cyber ink; they
really do evidence very similar sonic properties to
their IC brethren and NO, I do not feel they MUST be
used with the Stereovox IC's to make special David
Blaine-like magic! (Though Chris Sommovigo may feel
differently!).